BANGALORE: Kanbay Inc., a global systems integrator providing solutions to the financial services industry has announced its plan to further strengthen the India operations. Kanbay, India is Kanbay's largest development center. Out of a total strength of 1500 associates working in offices across four continents, Kanbay India has 1200 associates working at its development centre in Pune, India.

To support the growth, Kanbay also announced setting up of its second India development centre in Bangalore. The development centre will house 700 professionals as part of Phase 1 and is expected to be operational by December 2003.

Said Mr Raymond Spencer, Chairman and CEO, Kanbay Inc., "Kanbay has been experiencing high growth for last few years. This has been mainly due to high spend on technology among global financial services companies to remain profitable and competitive. This trend is expected to continue in years to come. To tap this huge potential we plan to strengthen our organization and given our past experience, India remains to be the best location for Kanbay."

"Kanbay India has successfully served global clients in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific, providing them with world class technology consulting. We are growing rapidly and keeping in line with our global strategy, Kanbay India will expand to meet the growing needs of global financial services companies. We are aiming at a 3000 strong team in India in the next three years, " added Mr Spencer.

"Kanbay India, has been able to provide global expertise and local advantage in an effective way, hence our strategy is to make India an even stronger destination for Kanbay Inc., " said Cyprian D'Souza, CEO, Kanbay India.

Kanbay for the current recruitment phase, plans to hire a good mix of experienced professionals and fresher's. These will mainly include developers, project managers and specialists- business analysts and industry SME's. Of the total number of professionals Kanbay plans to hire, about 10% would be for higher-level positions.